![\"\"](\"http:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/resident_evil_retribution.jpg\" "\\"resident_evil_retribution\\"")
<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 How did the \u201cResident Evil\u201d franchise get to five movies? Of course the easy answer is that all the films have made a small profit and the studio is sticking with what works. What I don\u2019t understand is how the franchise has managed to retain its audience for over a decade. It doesn\u2019t take more than two movies to figure out that they all have the same structure: Alice (Milla Jovovich) fights zombies alongside a handful of survivors. Most of her fellow humans get killed, but Alice lives long enough to do battle with the evil Umbrella Corporation. The audience\u2019s best hope for something original or interesting is that the film will have some creative kill scenes and that Alice will so something \u00a0super-sexy.<\/p>\nThe violence of \u201cRetribution\u201d consists of shooting, shooting, and more shooting. The zombies bite and claw as always, but the humans solve their problems by shooting. I really miss those death beams from the first few films that would slash people to pieces when given the chance. As for nudity, there are two key scenes. In the first, we see Alice in her skivvies as she wakes up in bed in a fantasy world. So far, so good. Then, after being abducted by Umbrella, she wakes up in a facility wearing a smock that covers key areas in the front and back but not the side. The side view is great but the smock is a turn-off. It\u2019s made of what appears to be that paper that covers the bed in a doctor\u2019s office. I find it hard to be attracted to an outfit that could justly be described as \u201ccrinkly\u201d.<\/p>\n
The semblance of plot is that Alice has to escape from the Umbrella facility before some good guy soldiers blow it up. She\u2019ll have help from the soldiers themselves, as well as a former Umbrella security officer (Bingbing Li, what a fun name!). She also finds that she has a simulated daughter, and foolishly goes out of her way to save the little robot. Enemies include traditional zombies, Russian zombies who know how to fire guns, giants with axes, mutant creatures, replicants of other characters from the \u201cResident Evil\u201d series (including ones played by the returning Oded Fehr and Michelle Rodriguez), and a friend of Alice\u2019s named Jill Valentine (Sienna Guillory) who has been brainwashed by Umbrella into doing their bidding. Jill\u2019s mind is controlled by a robotic spider that plugs into her neck. She and Alice fight a few times, and I waited impatiently for Alice to figure out that she can get her friend back by simply ripping off that nasty piece of bling.<\/p>\n
Alice has to go through some simulated cities to escape the facility. I liked that one of them was a sunny, peaceful suburb that gets torn apart by zombies. It\u2019s a nice change of pace from the usual dark, creepy buildings where you\u2019d be scared to walk down the halls even if zombies weren\u2019t an immediate threat. One of the simulated locations is in New York City, and I can\u2019t help but point out that there\u2019s a battle right in front of Hershey\u2019s Times Square. I\u2019m originally from Hershey, PA and if that wasn\u2019t enough of a connection, I start Monday as an employee of that very store.<\/p>\n
Okay, so \u201cResident Evil: Retribution\u201d found a way to curry my favor for about a minute. That doesn\u2019t change the fact that it\u2019s a typically bland entry in an overcooked zombie franchise. There will surely be a sixth \u201cResident Evil\u201d, partly because this installment ends with a setup for one, but mostly because it\u2019s enjoying a great opening weekend. The past few weeks have seen an extremely lackluster slate of new releases and \u201cRetribution\u201d easily laid claim to a restless audience. The box office was dying for a good popcorn movie, it settled for \u201cResident Evil: Retribution\u201d.<\/p>\n
One and a Half Stars out of Five.<\/p>\n
\u201cResident Evil: Retribution\u201d is rated R for sequences of strong violence throughout. Its running time is 95 minutes.<\/p>\n